The Problem With Office Staff

 My whole situation can be summed up as "office staff are lazy". On the bright side, it wasn't Compass Housing Alliance that messed up this time, instead it was a building with multiple managers who all took the same days off and didn't want to check their emails.

Of course that's only part of the story, but it's the backbone of the problem. The severe resistance to use modern technology is hurting people in so many ways, and yet there are still many people who refuse to modernize because they're comfortable with being troglodytes.

With our modern technology we also have better ways to manage our money, it uses the credit card system. So basically the story goes like this:

First they keep insisting payments are made using money order or cashier's check, both of which are typically used by criminal organizations attempting to commit tax fraud. So I was kind of pushing that back in my mind because they said a credit card system was available for rent payments, and I shouldn't have to deal with the parts which criminals prefer.

Then the stupid bullshit holiday known as Thanksgiving happened. I expected them to take a four day weekend because of it, which was bad enough given the vast majority of the world still functions and the whole process would be delayed because of precious time lost due to this.

But then they all took Monday off as well, because they're privileged office staff who are so over paid for sitting on their asses all day while others toil for entire days and earn less than a quarter what they do. So I am frantic about not knowing what's going on, what needs to be done, and all of that with only a few days remaining to make the transition to a new residence.

I get up on Tuesday, check my email, and no response was made. I don't check my voicemail because it's 2020, not 1980.

Discovered they tried to call me in an email they finally responded too, so my response was simple: I pointed out all the problems they created and said goodbye. Rent is due in two days here, and staying past the first of the month is not only rude, it's also against the lease, when planning to move out because then they have to go an entire month without rent.

So I opted to not screw over the organization that finally started doing something right, and stop the farcical procedure that Colwell Building managers were putting me through. The kicker here is that there are more managers for the Colwell Building than for the Karlstrom. Yet they still manage to have an entire week in which no manager is available to complete a time sensitive procedure in which the people involved need to know vital information to make plans around periods of being ill, medical care, and basic life needs.

At least with the Karlstrom, there was an excuse, the lack of stable staff in necessary positions. Colwell Building is supposedly a business, and they get tax credits for keeping some units for low income, yet they don't seem to be capable of doing this well.

From an assistant who doesn't know the process, to a head manager that is never there. The policies that resemble a criminal organization are just the cherry on the top here, so I will reiterate those really quick:

1. Only drug dealers or beggars take cash now, because it's easy to steal, and untraceable.

2. Only criminal organizations take money order or cashier's checks because they are easily hidden from tax records.

3. Regular checks are viable alternatives to debit and credit, but there is a reason to avoid those.

Of all the payment methods, debit and credit are the only ones friendly to the environment, completely secure, and easily managed. This is why so many new payment systems connected to the credit card system have become so popular, this is the future, time to start acting like it.

A Tale As Old As Time, At Least For Me

So on r/AskReddit someone asked what the most fucked up thing to happen to you was. I decided I'll paste a copy here for posterity because this one day really does sum up my entire life:

The Power of Millennials

 So I have watched a lot of millennial prank videos, stumbled on a lot of feel good ones. Originally I had expected a bunch of those really messed up pranks that my generation was and is quite popular for, and was so pleased to see none of that.

What I did discover was a few wealthy millennials with a lot of money and time, bored because they're rich, pranking people and giving them a lot of money and stuff in the end just to thank them for being a good sport. These videos show much more than that, and that in itself was really uplifting.

Big Daws TV is one of the groups doing these pranks, and they do some old fashioned pranks as well. So of course I saw those as well, and what stood out for me was that they were completely harmless.

Then I noticed a disturbing trend, something that shocked me to the core: of all their marks the millennials had the best reactions. Not best as in "most shocking of all time", but best as in laid back, so laid back.

Of course they get a bit shocked and surprised, but they don't swing, scream, or start attacking the pranksters. So these millennials that everyone else calls "entitled" or "weak" are really giving and laid back.

So if "entitled" means "giving money to people who need it when you have more than you need", then I hope they continue to be entitled. If being "weak" means "not attacking someone because they catch you off guard" then I hope they continue to be weak.

What we're seeing is our species finally becoming more humane, and these are a generation inheriting a pretty fucked up world. From allowing climate change to get out of hand to allowing our law enforcement to become tyrannical, and these youth are doing what they can to help fix the problems we started.

I'm embarrassed to be middle aged, not because I'm "old" but because others in my generation are insulting and attacking people who are doing the right thing.

Compass Housing: Archaic Trogolodytes

 So we finally get a forward thinking manager for The Karlstrom. One would think that was awesome news, however for us who live here it's like nothing changed.

The reason is that Compass Housing Authority won't even listen to the people they hire, instead they choose to do the same bullshit. So here is a list of things they do wrong, and all of them could be so easily corrected if they'd just embrace new technologies.

1. No Communication

If you send anyone an email, and you are lucky enough to get a response, it's no less than 7 days before you get said response. It's as if none of them check their messaging systems but for the two hours they spend in the office.

There are several possibilities as to why, from really inexperienced tech department to plain old laziness. There is no department email address system either, it's all to individuals using predetermined email addresses which the staff have zero control over.

This is straight out of the handbook of "how to handle this new thing called the internet" from the 1980s. Given today's environment, checking email should be an hourly thing and the staff should have a mobile app available to check it on the go as well.

2. Bad Web Design

Their website is generic, bland, and something that could easily be thrown together from a Wix template in about five minutes. Ironic given that they claim to have an IT department.

So it makes you wonder if they are even receiving emails. A short time ago it was discovered that their email system was filtering out most of the emails that were being sent to them.

3. No Modern Payment Methods

This one makes them seem suspicious as well as inept, given that the most secure and accessible payment methods are with credit card systems. These are inexpensive and easy systems to setup, and yet they are insisting on using the archaic, insecure, and often very slow methods of payment for rent while pretty much every other organization which manages low income housing offers a credit card payment system.

The new manager has been trying to convince them to implement such a system, which can be setup overnight by any competent technology or financial professional. Yet nearly eight months later no such system has been employed.

4. No Accountability

Often companies they employ for any task are unheard of, almost not internet presence and sometimes their office location on Google points to a residential house. Then when the residents file a complaint about the services, CHA tells us to complain to that company, then that company tells us to either complain to CHA or fuck off.

We have a laundry facility that can't even wash sheets well, and then whenever new residents move in with bed bugs we end up with a massive infestation. These are new problems, relatively, that started when they sold off the expensive laundry machines that were installed in the building when it first opened.

The machines we had were not prefect, mind you, but they were functional and didn't require cash to operate. The company they replaced it with not only remains elusive and avoids all contact with residents, their machines are from the late 1980s and are designed for low and infrequent use.

When attempting to discuss this issue with them, the best we can hope for is occasional access to their better facilities used for cleaning the laundry from the shelters. If the company they contracted cannot provide machines which could work for shelters, what makes them think it would work for an apartment building?

5. Retaliatory Practices

A few of their staff will watch the social media of the residents, thankfully they don't know how to do this well because they do response to any criticism with anger. Given they are also constantly looking for things to hang over the heads of the residents as threats for eviction, this is really bad practice and looks suspiciously like they are attempting to silence any criticism.

Several residents have mentioned as much, many too paranoid to even complain to the authorities which are supposed to hold CHA accountable for their actions. When a resident mentions anything to them, CHA will hold onto that and blow it out of proportion, even making up complaints from "some neighbors" even when no neighbor has made any official complaint.

Now it is possible the neighbors are just too afraid to talk to each other, but this would be in response to the fact that CHA has created such an environment by ignoring legitimate complaints, delaying repairs, and blaming some residents for the damage caused by other residents who have routinely flooded the building. When pressed on any issue, the staff complain about their insurance rates increasing while defending the very people who caused it and moving more such people into the building.

As I write this, the residents in the apartments above mine are smoking marijuana, which they have done almost daily since the COVID lockdown. These are the residents responsible for so much damage to the building, and the property of those of us who have caused no damage to the building.

Instead of even considering compensating us who have lost property, then making things right by fixing out broken services, they defend and protect the ones who actually caused the damage. To make matters worse, they blame those of us who have been harmed by these incidents for the results of the damage.

My newest neighbor has brought with him bed bugs, which would not have been a problem if we had functioning laundry facilities which were easily accessed. As it is, there is no way to launder the linen so I have to spray poisons almost every day to keep up with the invasion.

There is also a resident selling drugs out of their apartment here, and though I don't know who it is nor how valid that accusation is, it would not be surprising if that was true.

Compass Housing Alliance is one of the most dysfunctional and archaic organizations in the system, a far cry from the original Compass Center that maintained the building to high standards, kept very strong relations with the residents, and took responsibility for their role when things did go south.

You can't complain about insurance rates increasing when you remove amenities that helped maintain the building and protect those who are flooding units regularly.

Fuck Washington, Especially Seattle

So my problems when I was young, growing up in western Washington (mostly Covington), I had no support from anyone. My mother was psychologically abusing me, even the teachers knew something was wrong but back then no one thought psychological abuse was a thing.

So instead of getting me the help I needed, they would just punish me for my odd behavior. I had no one to turn to, being trans and atheist for as long as I could remember.

In school I avoided the popular kids, even though they often wanted me to hang out with them. Most of the time I was far more happy with cats, dogs, pretty much any other species by my own.

After turning 18 I was lost, no aim, no goals, because I didn't even know who or what I was. All I could do was strive to survive, and that I did well.

I picked up a set of skills, which would better serve some super secret agent in a fictional movie than any real human. After having helped many people and a lot of cats, I was diagnosed with disability and locked into a system that does what it can to keep you there, no matter who is in charge.

The only thing I could look forward to was that one day I could get some surgery and feel happy about my body. Then a medical doctor who was a bastard in Virginia Mason decided to lie and remove my hopes of getting that surgery by having me declared suicidal just because I disagreed with him on something unrelated.

So now I had only one thing to live for, a single cat who I would raise from a kitten and have for their entire life. A cat who I could say "I remember when he/she was so tiny."

That cat was going to be Rhodey, a wonderful black cat with a shady past who got really lucky. Healthy and happy, friendly to everyone, and I was forgetting all my problems focusing on taking care of him and his sister.

I looked so forward to the next twenty years, I probably won't live much longer after that because of a few health related problems and the mistake of smoking tobacco. But at least when I died I would be happy to have had this one thing.

Then, only a year after I had brought him home, our home was flooded and Compass Housing Alliance did not follow through with the repairs, forcing us to live with mold, no kitchen, and exposed insulation. Rhodey lost two pounds in about six months, scared I took him to the vet.

Everything seemed okay, and the vet assumed it was his teeth. I took that diagnosis because it was something I could directly help with.

Brushing his teeth regularly, I hoped he would regain the lost weight and start growing again. But he didn't, though he didn't seem to lose anymore weight.

A few years later, last year in fact, I took him to renew his vaccines and have him checked on. I was correct, he had not gained weight, so they did a full blood work on him.

It was expensive, but I was desperate now, I was worried, tense, scared. A few days later I got the email back, everything looked perfect, as in perfectly healthy, as in what I was doing was great for him, except ...

That except was kidney disease, when I read it I felt numb, fear, rage, hatred, washing over me, all at once. It was obvious who was responsible for it, a disease caused by environmental toxins, a thing which he was only exposed to during the time of the flooding.

Seattle had taken the last two things I loved from me. This vampiric city that masquerades as "environmentally friendly" and a place for equality.

Seattle, the city where everyone will tell you they care about you, as long as you don't rock the boat. Seattle and Compass Housing Authority, the people that claims to be animal friendly while complaining about the extra strong urine small caused by a cat who suffers because they poisoned him.

The last good employee for Seattle Housing Authority, the one who demanded that Compass Housing Alliance actually finish the repairs for the flooding that was caused by a drunk who passed out, retired the same day he did that wonderful thing. The last person who cared about the poor, the needy, the ones truly in danger, retired with one last loving act, though too late, I will always remember that he was the last good person in the Seattle government, perhaps in all of western Washington, perhaps in the entire country of the USA.